The identification of objects that are relatively fungible, but possess minute yet important nuances or details, can be a difficult, tedious and time-consuming affair. As will be readily recognized by those familiar with such enterprises, a failure to accurately identify such objects with regularity can have unintended or undesirable consequences. Such situations are well known in many retail fields, such as the hardware field, the cosmetic field, and the clothing field.
One illustrative example is the hardware field. In additional to numerous objects in the hardware field possessing minute yet important nuances, fasteners stand out as particularly cumbersome retail objects. Fasteners such as screws, nuts, bolts, washers, pins, hooks, or the like are provided with thousands of different specifications that are generally denoted in the metric system or British system. Therefore, the fasteners must initially be arranged in an orderly manner so as to allow a person to locate a desired fastener according to these systems.
Further, for example, screws can having many functional variables such as length, pitch, thread count, tip shape, head shape, Phillips or regular, or material composition that make it difficult to find the proper screw for purchase. Typically, such fasteners are stored in separate compartments of storage units and/or dispensers (hereinafter referred to as “units”) such as bulk silos, boxes, shelves, and the like according to these functional variables. The compartments are generally labeled with information pertaining to the specifications or functional variables of the fasteners contained therein. However, such storage methods are inefficient, as an employee or customer looking for a desired fastener must visually scan though numerous compartments before locating the retail object desired. In addition, many people do not know the exact type of fastener that they are looking for, and are forced to rummage through each compartment and “eyeball” what is thought to be the correct fastener.
The shortcomings of such organizational systems are numerous. For example, it is time consuming and labor intensive to locate the desired fastener. In addition, the contents of different compartments often become mixed as employees and customers search for the desired fastener. Moreover, such systems do not provide for a reliable method off tracking of inventory, nor do they readily permit systematic tracking of other variables that may be of interest. Finally, none of the previously known organizational or identification systems appear to allow for the use of common consumer computer systems and other similar construction materials (such as off-the-shelf personal computers, personal digital assistants, LEDs, LCDs, etc.).
Therefore, a system that can provide better organizational structure and user-friendly operation would be a great improvement over the know prior know systems. Such a system would not only be valuable in the hardware field, but in any retail field where retail objects possess minute yet important nuances or functional variables.